Phew! It's over

Fall Ball wrapped up Saturday--think last year was a longer season, but I'm not sure. And frankly, I don't care. Last year was a great year to be playing baseball--warm, sunny days. This year we contended with rain, wind, chilly temps, downright cold temps--more than one game was played in the lower 60's--not exactly weather conducive for young guys to work on fundamentals.

Another drawback to this year--neither team really had anyone who could pitch (there's only enough players for two teams to play). By the end of the year there were some guys who showed promise, but still no good arms. So you had a lot of walks, a lot of swings on bad pitches.

But--Frodo and Sam ended up on the same team with the son of one of the High School baseball coaches, who ended up coaching their team--occasionally assisted by some of his players. That was great. Some great instruction. Hope some of it stuck.

And hey, they had fun, so hard to complain about that.

But it's over now. We have our Saturday's back (no more 2.5 hr games following 45 min. of warm-up), we have our weekdays back (at least 2 more days a week I can get a little more sleep). Now we just have to find something to keep these guys occupied :)

Things that make you go 'duh'

Saw this headline on my iGoogle page this morning:

Craig interview: Senator says he made 'a very big mistake'

Haven't read the interview (doubt I'll waste my time), but that's a pretty major understatement there, don't ya think?

Monday Morning Crack-Up (And You Can, Too!)

Stephen Colbert took over Maureen Dowd's space yesterday. The results were...hilarious, with a capital "HI"

After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up. [Oh, so he's dispensational...]

winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace.

Almost bought his book Friday, am now really kicking myself for not doing so...

Thanks, Jules, for this...really needed the laughs this morning.

Thought for the Lord's Day #10

Jehovah who created all things is equal to every emergency; heaven and earth are at the disposal of him who made them, therefore let us be very joyful in our infinite helper. He will sooner destroy heaven and earth than permit his people to be destroyed, and the perpetual hills themselves shall bow rather than he shall fail whose ways are everlasting. We are bound to look beyond heaven and earth to him who made them both: it is vain to trust the creatures: it is wise to trust the Creator.

- Charles Spurgeon

An oldie but a goodie...

One of those rare e-mail forwards that's worth the time. But since I don't have all of your addresses (and I hate doing bulk forwards) I'll just post it here:

HOW TO WRITE GOOD
by Frank L. Visco

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

1... Avoid alliteration. Always.

2... Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3... Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)

4... Employ the vernacular.

5... Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

6... Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

7... It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

8... Contractions aren't necessary

9... Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

10.. One should never generalize.

11.. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

12.. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

13.. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

14.. Profanity sucks.

15.. Be more or less specific.

16.. Understatement is always best.

17.. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

18.. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

19.. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

20.. The passive voice is to be avoided.

21.. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

22.. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

23.. Who needs rhetorical questions?

(yeah, yeah, I was too tired to finish one of the in-works posts but wanted to get something new up...)

October Giveaway...

Challies' giveaways are never anything to sneeze at, but this month's takes the cake. Do yourself a favor and enter now.

Do me a favor and enter by clicking below (cuz then I get another entry) :)

Tip of the Day

Don't try to write a nice inscription on a gift book, say...a Bible, while answering a question from an inquisitive first grader. The results can be quite unfortunate.

Heading into our Twelfth Lap...

We celebrated our 11^th wedding anniversary last Friday. This year's was obviously much more celebratory than most, since we really didn't expect to see it. Solomon (who knew a thing or two about wives...other than when to stop collecting them) tells us that an excellent wife is far more precious than jewels (Prov. 31:10) and she is the crown of her husband (Prov. 12:4). He's (of course) absolutely right, and I'm very glad to say that God has given me more time with this particularly lovely piece of headgear.

When we first were married we had this little game we played (come to think of it, it might not have been a game, I just treated it like one) where she'd ask my why I loved her and I'd come up with a quip in response. Last year, for our tenth anniversary, I tried to come up with a list of reasons to give her a serious and honest answer to that question. It didn't take me too long to realize this was a pointless activity--everything I thought of about her was a reason I loved her, which meant the list was always growing.

Basically, to me, knowing TLoML and not loving her is like looking at the Grand Canyon and thinking "huh, big hole in the ground." It just seems impossible to not be struck with a sense of grandeur and awe when looking at that monument in Arizona, and it seems to me to be equally impossible to not love this woman. Not for this or that reason or trait (or flaw)...but because of who she is.

A few years back a sitcom character (who I won't name to save myself the grief) was faced with a choice between his current girlfriend and the girl he'd loved since high school. Because he's a sitcom character, he decides the thing to do is make a list of pros and cons of both women with his friends. He comes up with a list of cons for the girl from high school--some surface level, a couple potentially substantial. And then he comes up with exactly one con for the current g/f: she wasn't the other woman. Didn't matter what pros there were to her, she just wasn't the other one. That's pretty much how I've spent the last dozen years thinking of women...TLoML and everyone else. Frankly, the rest of 'em just don't measure up, and I feel a little sorry for the rest of the males out there who don't get to be with my gal (but not too sorry...).

I wish I could show her how much she means to me, but I'm just not smart enough to come up with enough ways. But I'll keep trying, hoping that I stumble into the right way one day...Lord willing, I have a few decades of attempts before us.

Here's last year's post from Oct. 5^th, which says a lot of the same things I want to say today...

From the Father of lights you came
And I know I'll never be the same again
A beautiful gift has been given to me
Your smiling face is all I see

The look that's in your eyes
And your smile that sets me free
Has made me realize
All that you see in me

Most important day of my life. I entered into a blessed covenant with the most wonderful woman I've ever met, because God was gracious enough to bring us together. I'd do it, and everything since all over again. 'Cept this time with more laughs, more love, and a few different mistakes (not crazy enough to think I'd make less).

My best friend, my heart, my life, my soulmate...

I love you, dear. May be cliché, but love ya more now than then. More now today than yesterday. Here's to many more.

Together now and forever
You are the one
You are my everything
To me you bring
The love that I have waited for

On the need to keep up with one's friends

Has Jules been visiting the Pittsburgh area?

Win Ben Stein's Ire

How can we say there is justice in this world...

...when Rascal Flatts is allowed to cover "Revolution"?

That's right, Rascal Flatts--Country Music's answer to 'NSync is covering The Beatles. Heard this on the radio on the way in to work tonight, and naturally, had to listen to the whole blasted thing just to find out who the criminals responsible were. Somehow found the strength not to drive my van into a telephone pole.

If you have to hear the travesty yourself, click here and fast-forward to about 3:18 or so.

Your Zoology Moment of the Day

All Work and No Play, Makes Orca a Dull Whale

The above includes the line, "Like a dim-witted teenager in a bad horror flick..." since when do nature-shows have narration like this? You'd never hear Marlin Perkins utter that line while Jim Fowler played killer whale bait.

Cool birdy

Thought for the Lord's Day #9

It cannot be over-emphasized that we have not seen the full meaning of the cross till we have seen it... as the center of the gospel, flanked on the one hand by total inability and unconditional surrender and on the other by irresistible grace and final preservation.

- J. I. Packer

that's what I'd like to know

R. Scott Clark asks the question I've been asking for years:

Why Should We Care What Jim Dobson Says?

A multi-tasker AB have to approve of

Cushions you in a crash, performs the Heimlich manuver...that's what I call a safety feature.

And as long as you will be true to Old Narnia you shall be my King, whatever they say.

Who'da thunk it?

from mlb.com on 9/19/07:

Journey says it all:


misc thoughts on the video:

1. 1. I've read somewhere that the theory that his chorus was stuck in Barnabus' head as he penned the 19^th book of the New Testament will serve as the basis of Dan Brown's next book, The Steve Perry Code
2. Think the last time I saw pants that tight on a dude was the last time I saw John Schlitt in concert. There should be a support group for people like that.

Ahoy, me hearties!

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day...
For entertain:

and Tom Smith's song, "Talk Like a Pirate Day"

To educate:

Have at it, ye salty sea dogs!

Update: Heh, seems Julie had a similar thought.

Yowza!

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is simply breathtaking...


(H/T: Kletois)

Couple of (short) things to read...

It bugs the tar out of me to read bloggers (especially 'prolific' bloggers) who simply copy someone else's post in its entirety (generally w/o a link to the original site, but they put the other blogger's by-line on it for the sake of intellectual honesty or whatever), but if there was ever a time I was tempted to do it...

• Sabbath a'Brakel: How to Relate to the Unconverted--these Sabbath a'Brakel quotations are always great, but this one particularly hit me
• The Most Perfect Human Compendium of Christian Truth (if I was ripping this one off, I'd have put an ellipses over that hyperbole line)